Ren and Rey
by Kaylintayne
Summary: One shot of Ren and Rey after the Force Awakens
1. Chapter 1

"Why do you force me to hurt you?" he askes in his deep voice. I can barely keep my eyes open, but when I see him I almost feel relieved. They always stop when he is there.

"I'm not making you do anything Kylo," I mumble through swollen lips. I feel his hand on my cheek. It is a gentle touch, but the bruises make it painful.

"If you would just listen to him, this would be over. The hurting would be over."

"You know I can't listen to him."

"You can! I did! I became more powerful than I ever could listening to Luke! Just give into Snook. He will show you the way." I tense against my restraints and life my head to look at him in the face.

"Never. I will never join him." I spit at him. I can taste blood in my mouth. I can feel the room getting colder around us.

"Then join me," he says quietly. I almost think I heard him wrong.

"What?" I say. I am so defeated I almost let him see it in my face.

"Join me, together we could take down Snook and anyone who stands in our way. We could rule the galaxy, we could become king and queen of everything." He looks excited now, he takes my shoulders in his hands. "We don't need him. You and I are powerful enough to take him down together. Together we could get rid of him rid the galaxy of his filth."

"To what end? Rule it like the emperor did? With evil twisted agendas?" I spit back.

"We could start a new Jedi order, just me and you. But change it, let us use the dark side and the light." I am tempted by this. Together we could do what he is saying. And it would be much better then what it is now. "We could finally belong to something Rey, together." I thought of Jakku. I thought of how long I stayed on that planet alone, waiting for my family to come back.

I thought of how much I wanted to _belong_ to anything but the desert. I look up into his dark eyes. I can tell he sees that what he is saying is working. I don't want it to work. I don't want to listen. But I do.

"We could change things, stop Snook and bring the Jedi order back?"

"Yes. But without the flaws it had before. We could bring peace to the galaxy. You and I, together." He seemed to like the idea of us together. And honestly it didn't sound aweful. His hands slid to my face, and they cupped both cheeks. "Rey. Please, we could save each other. You and I." I try to reach up to touch his face, but my hands are still manacled. I look down and try to control my emotions. If I let them go I will follow him. What he says sounds right. It sounds good.

"You would come back from the dark side?"

"The dark side gives me power!" he says a little harsher then he meant it. He sees he made me frightened, he looks away. "I will come closer to the light if you were with me." I want to believe he is telling the truth. With all my heart I want to believe. His name slips out of my lips before I can stop it.

"Ben." Suddenly he jerks away from me, and he covers his face with his hands.

"Ben is dead. Ben was weak." He screams at me.

"NO!" I yell back. "Ben was not weak! He was stronger then you. I didn't know you then, but I can still see him in you!"

"No! He is dead."

"HE is not dead. I see him, he is tormented, and he is twisted, but he is there. He is the only reason you have made it this far!" My voice echoes around the cell. And he turns to look at me. His eyes are glistening with tears. I want to reach out and touch him. Tell him it's alright. But he won't let me. He puts his helmet on: the helmet he uses to hid his tears.

"Think over what I said." He tells me. And he storms out of the room.


	2. Chapter 2

The manacles still hurt my wrists. There is still torture. The pain Kylo Ren inflicts on me is unimaginable. Sometimes when I scream I see him flinch. Maybe what he offered me to take over the universe together he craved the belonging as much as I had.

It is cold in my cell. I don't remember when he stopped hurting me with the electricity. But I am sobbing so hard my eyes burst with colors. I can't see and I can barely feel. But as I cry I realize I am crying into something. Did he take off my bindings?

No. I still can't move.

But as sight comes back to my eyes I see that he is close to me, he has untied my head and I am sobbing on his shoulder. His arms are around my shoulder and neck. His hands hold me tightly as if I am going to slip away from him.

Honestly I couldn't pull away from him even if I wanted to.

"Why did you have to scream like that?" he is telling me, over and over again those words echo in my ear. I mumble back into his cape.

"Like what?"

"Like you were screaming for me. Like it isn't my fault." He answered. I am less numb now, I am more coherent. I don't really understand what he is saying. I was screaming because it hurt like hell. I was screaming because I wanted it to stop. I try to look up at his face, and as I do a single teardrop falls onto my cheek and slides down with the rest of the tears. But this tear wasn't mine. It was his.

"Honestly Rey, I don't know how much more of this I can take." He tells me. He is crying. For a second I find humor in that. He can't take much more of my being tortured.

"Then let me go." I say quietly. "We can run away from here. We can kill Snook." His grip tightens on me and his body stiffens.

"You would do that, you would help me?"

"If you would come back towards the light," I tell him.

"Don't ask me to be on the side of Luke Skywalker, don't ask me to be on the side of the light."

"I'm not asking you to be," I tell him. "I am asking Ben to." He yanks away from me. I can see the betrayal laced in his eyes.

"I killed Ben because he was weak." Kylo hisses at me. "You don't make this deal with him, you make this deal with me."

"I will never make a deal with you." I spit. I try to stand to my full height. "I will only deal with Ben." Kylo raised his hand to strike me and I stare unflinching into his eyes.

"But Ben is dead. Ben was weak, I destroyed him to make room for me."

"Ben has always been stronger." I tell him. I wish he would just strike me, seeing his hand up in the air ready frightens me more than the blow would.

"Why do you say such things?" he asks quietly. And his hand slowly goes down to his side.

"Because it is true. You would have never gotten this far without Ben." He is searching my eyes now, trying to tell what I mean. I can see he is confused. I figure Snook whispered the lies to him that Ben was weak. Luke was right telling me Ben was who was strong. He was always strong. A tear slides down his cheek and I watch it fall to his cape.

"That is a lie." He says so quietly I almost don't hear him. It is like he is trying to reassure himself. I lean forward, but I can't get very far with the manacles.

"You know it's not." I say gently. "Snook is using you, he is using Kylo Ren because Ben is too strong for him to control. That is why Snook tells you Kylo is the better because he cannot lead Ben." I can see he wants to believe me. He is studying the floor and I can tell he really wants it to be true. He looks up into my eyes and for a split second I see him: I see Ben and who he used to be, I see it is not Kylo Ren's tears on his cheeks. They are his. For a split second I can see Han clapping him on the back and ruffling his hair. I hear Han's voice: "Alright Champ, what's all this about delusions of grandeur and thinking you're a Jedi?"

I am back in the present as Ben slowly fades into Kylo Ren's hard angry face.

"You are wrong." He says. I am angry at him, I could scream at him for being so stupid. But I don't, I sink back into the torture chair and heave a heavy sigh.

"I wish I was. It would hurt you less." I turn my eyes away from him and close them. I feel his body come closer to mine, and a gloved hand gently pushes a curl away from my forehead.

"It would hurt less." He tells me with a shaking voice. "But I can't stop it. I have gone too far, Ben cannot come back." I turn to look at him and his face is inches from mine.

"It is never too late to come back to the light." I tell him quietly.

"I want you to be right." He says back in a whisper. I look into his eyes. I can't stop looking into them. I want to tell him it is right, and that I can save him.

I think he is turning to go, but he can't move his feet the way he wants too. He looks over at me, his hand waves out in front of him. My manacles fall off. I have no energy to stand, I simply fall out of the chair and into his arms.

He sweeps me into his strong arms.

"You might not be right," he tells me. "But I am not going to let you suffer anymore." I close my eyes and grip his cloak weakly. I faint in his arms.


	3. Chapter 3

"Come on, wake up," it wasn't Ben's voice. I remember him waking me the few times I used to sleep in the torture chair. He would gently speak to me until I was awake. Sometimes he would watch me until I sensed his presence. But who was calling me back from the dead place wasn't Ben. It was a woman.

My eyes open. I am soaking wet in something, maybe it is blood or sweat. I am wrapped in a blanket.

"Get up Rey," the voice sounds irritated. My head feels clear. My hair is loose and hanging around my face in wet tangled bundles. I force myself to a sitting, and cough a few times. I look over at the woman who was talking. She is working at something. They look like my clothes, she seems to be washing them. I am naked wrapped in the blanket. I blink over at her in confusion.

"Don't sit there like an idiot. Get up and get yourself cleaned up." The woman told me. She seemed to be talking to a child that wouldn't listen.

"Where am I?" I ask. My voice is scratchy and hoarse.

"Don't worry about that. Just go get cleaned up." The woman insists. I stand and walk across the cold floor to her.

"Where am I?"

"What makes you think you're so special huh?" the woman sighs. "No go wash yourself off so I don't have to." The woman points to a small door. I walk over to it and it opens for me. I step in and water starts shooting out of the ceiling. I drop the blanket outside the room and let the water wash me clean. I see a disturbing amount of blood that washed off of me. I stepped out of the little room and draped the blanket over my shoulders.

The woman is draping my blood stained clothes on a line. She glanced over at me.

"You can dress in that until your clothes are dry." She points at a dark blue jumpsuit that lays on a small shelf next to me. I stand where I am. I don't want to do what she asks, so I just stand there and she just stares at me.

"Where is Ben?" I ask. She glares at me.

"Don't speak that name in these halls again." The woman snaps at me. She walks closer to me, grabs the jumpsuit and shoves it into my arms. I grab it from her as she glares at me.

"Just because you are Kylo Ren's favorite doesn't mean you can go slurring him like that."

"Slurring him?" I stutter. This woman was starting to get on my nerves. I clutch the close to my chest and shove her shoulder and walk away.

"You better watch it Rey," the woman hisses. "Snoke isn't going to keep you here forever, when he realizes it is just Kylo is being soft he will kill you."

"Being soft?" I glance at her confused. She sighs and walks across the room to the door, it slides open for her.

"He stopped you from being tortured because he has a soft spot for you. He convinced Snoke that you were better here, training to be with us." I don't respond. "I don't know why Kylo Ren chose you of all people." She hisses. "He should better." The door shuts behind her. I walk up to the door but it won't open for me. I change into the clothes and sit on the small bunk that is in the corner. I tuck my knees under my chin and try to think more clearly.

After about an hour I have searched the room for anything I might use as a weapon. But everything is either too small or attached to the wall. I finally settle with sitting on the bed and waiting for something to happen.

The lights dim to a low blue glow. I assume that means it is night time. But the last thing I wanted to do was sleep. I sit staring at the door. Until he enters. It is maybe three or four hours. And he walks in and stand in front of me.

He seems surprised I am awake. Maybe he wanted to come in while I slept. He has his mask off, his black curly hair is damp. He looks at me with those piercing black eyes and shakes as he stands.

"Your awake." His deep voice says. I only swallow in response. I am not quite sure what I should say. Why did he bring me here? Why did he stop the torture? But somehow I am oddly comforted in seeing him. This room is unfamiliar, the woman I didn't know. The water from the ceiling was strange. But his face is the same as it was when I saw it last. His eyes had the same piercing intensity when he told me of his hopes for me to join him against Snoke.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" he asks quietly. I realize I have been staring at him in silence for the past few minutes. I don't want to say anything, so I just look away and take a deep breath. He is getting impatient with me now. He used to do a lot of that when we were in the torture room. "Say _something_." I glance back at him.

"Where am I?" he looks relieved I can speak still. Like my silence was slowly killing him.

"It doesn't matter," he tells me. "You are safe for now." He reaches out his hand, and when I flinch at it he draws back. "Snoke cannot get you here. You will be safe until I can get you off planet."

Off planet? Where was he planning on taking me?

"I don't understand." I stare at him blankly. I think of the torture I endured. I remember the deal he tried to make.

 _"You and I, we can finally belong to something."_ I wanted that more than my freedom. I had made a promise to Han after Starkiller base. I had looked up to the stars and promised him I would bring Ben back to the light. That I would try until my dying breath. His deal seemed like the best option for starting down that path.

"I am getting you away from Snoke."

"But what about your deal, about bringing back the Jedi?" I stretch my legs out and he pulls back as if I am a dangerous animal.

"I was wrong," he says turning away from me. "We can't go against Snoke, not like that."

"Of course we can." I tell him, standing from the bed. "You and I remember, us, together."

"You only wanted to deal with Ben. And Ben is dead." He tells me. I scream at him in frustration. He looks over at me startled.

"How are you so thick? How can you possibly believe that? You are Ben, right now, he never left."

"You're lying."

"No! It's true. He is right here." I jab a finger at his chest and he grips my wrist. For a terrifying moment I think he is going to hit me. For an even more terrifying moment I see as he realizes how he wants to hit me, and he stops himself.

He stands holding my wrist. I stand staring at his eyes, that are darting across the room franticly.

"Ben, stop hiding from this." He finally looks me in the eyes. I almost fall apart because of the hurt I see in them.

"But it's too painful to face Rey," he whispers softly. "You don't understand." I stare at him.

"I can try to understand." I tell him. He shakes his head and I feel like I am losing him.

"I killed him Rey. I killed my father." It sounds like a confession, but he spit the words out like venom. I hold his eyes with mine.

"I know." I tell him. He lets go of my wrist. I think he intends to leave. He would do that when he was torturing me, leave when I started to get to him. I don't let him leave this time. I quickly step forward and embrace him. It scares him as much as it does me. But I bury my face into his cloak and refuse to move.

His body is rigid and shaking. I can do nothing but hold onto him. Tears leak out of the corner of my eyes.

"Ben," I say quietly. "You are enough, just Ben is enough. I don't need Kylo Ren." I am afraid he doesn't hear me. I am afraid he will pull me off and leave. But his body starts to relax. And it starts to shudder in his sobs.

"You are the first to ever tell me that," he tells me.

"I know." I tell him back.


	4. Chapter 4

I held him for a long time.

He was sobbing and I was sobbing. Until we couldn't tell whose tears were whose. We were a mess of tears and light and dark. And I don't think either of us could tell which was which. When we got tired of standing we sat on the edge of the bed. He had his head curled into my stomach, my arms around his head and shoulders.

When we had stopped crying and were sitting in silence he took a deep breath into my stomach.

"I am weak for crying." He told me. I absently run my hands through his black curly hair.

"No, you are brave for your tears." I tell him. "How long have you held them back?"

"Since I could remember."

"See, that's a lot of tears to face. That is brave." He doesn't move or respond. He just keeps his face buried in my stomach.

"How can I face them now Rey?"

"Who?"

"Snoke, my knights."

"Like you always do." I tell him. "But now you are stronger and they don't know that." He sits up to look at me. We are so close I can feel his breath on my face. But I strangely don't feel embarrassed at our closeness. He reaches his hand out and places it on my cheek.

"I do not understand where you get these words, these answers." He studies every inch of my face. "I can't protect you forever Rey," he tells me. I give him a half smile.

"You don't have to protect me, I can protect myself."

"Not against Snoke, not against his armies you can't." He tells this matter-of-factly. He grips my shoulder with his other arm and I am suddenly alarmed at his starving look. "You have to leave, I am taking you away."

"We said we would fight Snoke, not run and hide." I insist. He draws away from me and stands.

"It will be difficult," he tells me, his voice shaking. "You must train to resist him. His power is greater than my own."

"Then show me how to resist him." I say standing and grabbing his shoulder. He shudders at my touch. He looks over at me, longing in his eyes.

"It will be painful," he tells me.

"Not any more painful then what I have already endured." I say to him. He nods. I can tell he wants to leave, like he used to when we were in the torture chambers. He wants to run away from this. But I can tell he is quickly realizing he can run away from me.

"No, but Rey," he turns to face me. I can feel his anxiety like it hangs in the air. "I don't want Snoke to hurt you."

"But he has hurt you Ben, and I won't let him hurt you again." I am so resolved he studies me for a moment.

"I chose to let him hurt me, you didn't." he tells me. At first I don't understand. He can tell I don't know. "You don't understand what I did for him, what he told me to do and I listened because I wanted the power. I wanted to rule the galaxy and I thought Snoke would help me do that." I am still looking at him, my face blank. He shakes his head. "I killed them Rey, I killed all the young training jedi. Luke tried to stop me but he couldn't. Because Snoke told me if I did I would be able to gain more power, more power to the dark side." I think he expects me to recoil in terror. He is surprised when I just stand looking at him. I remember seeing the vision of him killing the children when I had first touched Luke's lightsaber. I knew he had done dark things.

"Ben, only the future matters." I tell him finally. He is facing me and blinks. Something about his face makes me want to stay silent. It's like he is both in awe and turmoil at once.

"First you tell me I am enough. Now you tell me that only the future matters," he tells me. "You have chosen the only words no one has ever told me." I lean forward and wrap my arms around him. He embraces me back and I feel a thrill race down my spine. I might save him yet.

He pulls away from me first.

"You should get some sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow."


End file.
